On December 9th, Facebook prompted users to change their privacy settings to 'everyone,' which poses significant privacy threats by allowing anyone online to view personal information. The document discusses Facebook's motive to increase web traffic and data collection for targeted advertising while emphasizing the risks of potential employer scrutiny through shared content. Recommendations include setting privacy to 'only friends,' managing friend access, and limiting third-party app permissions to protect user privacy.

1. Facebook
Privacy settings v Privacy threats
Karen Mc Cullagh

2. Prompted change in Privacy settings
On Wednesday 9th December,
Facebook prompted all users
to update their privacy
settings.
The (new) default settings are:
1) Everyone
2) Friends of Friends
3) Friends

3. Everyone = Privacy threat!
“Everyone”
Anyone & Everyone with access to the
Web will be able to view the following details:
- About me
- Family & relationships
- Work & Education
- Posts I create

4. Why has Facebook done this?
“share everything with everyone”
• Facebook says the freely-shared data "makes
it easier for people to find and learn about
you"

5. Why has Facebook really done this?
1) It's a ploy to drive up Facebook traffic by getting more
of its pages catalogued by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and
search engines (i.e. Making it faster and easier to search for
such material)
2) The strategy is a crucial part of Facebook’s effort to
supplant Google (GOOG) as the Web’s key data
repository.
3) Facebook have ambitions to collect as much data as
possible on their users, so that they can target
advertising and marketing to their users, and sell it to
other organisations.

6. Privacy threats
• Up until now, Facebook alone has maintained control over the vast
majority of content uploaded to the site. Get rid of it on Facebook, and it
was usually gone, at least from the prying eyes of a stranger. If you were
about to apply for a new job and wanted to go through and clean up your
update history, you could do that.
But with ‘Everyone’, that changes.
Facebook’s privacy policy now states:
• If you delete “everyone” content that you posted on Facebook, we will
remove it from your Facebook profile, but we have no control
over its use outside of Facebook.
• In other words, if users do share with everyone and they change their
mind, Facebook won’t be able to repair the
damage.

7. Privacy threats
• The real trouble will start when Facebook starts sharing the
‘everyone’ status updates with search engines and other
third parties.
• Bing (search engine owned by Microsoft) will have access
to Facebook ‘Everyone’ status updates in early 2010.
• Google will only have access to Fan Pages at first, but they
could decide to pay for access to the status updates too.
• Both of these sites cache data. (i.e. They store Web files for
later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end
user.)

8. Why you should care

9. You could get ‘dooced’
• Dooced – sacked because of the information you
put on Facebook.
Example:
• The term dooced made its British English debut
in January 2005, when Joe Gordon, a senior
bookseller in the shop Waterstone's in Edinburgh,
was sacked, allegedly having made offensive
remarks about the company in his online satirical
newsletter, Woolamaloo Gazette.

10. Future jobs
It is a known fact that Employers run Google and
Facebook searches on applicants....they have
the right to investigate whether you’re worth
investing in....so don’t give them incriminating
evidence to hold against you... being a student
may excuse a lot of antics when you’re at
Uni....but...

11. Your past could haunt you
...even 40 years later, as search engines store
data indefinitely
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/50948/

12. A picture/image/recording can have a
lasting impact on your reputation
Perhaps this kid will be able to Will this girl be able to laugh off
her singing?
laugh off his singing...
http://www.youtube.com/wat http://www.youtube.com/watc
ch?v=ErMWX--UJZ4 h?v=thXMcwEAmLA

13. Protect your reputation
(the internet will not let you, or others, forget)
Did you notice that the Halo
song was dedicated to ‘Boo’
who has now passed away?
How quick were you to pass
judgment ?
(without considering the context )
....future friends and
employers will be equally
quick to judge YOU

14. Employers do not (legally cannot)
share your humour
• Ms Leam-Taylor sent an email entitled ‘Deloitte First year analysts Christmas Awards,’ to
her female colleagues asking them to vote on which men in the office they considered
most attractive.
• She listed 9 categories including, 'boy most likely to sleep his way to the top' and 'most
attractive older member of staff'.
• She also wrote “This probably massively violates HR equal opportunities policy, but never
mind! It's all for fun and a bit of a laugh."
• The email was only intended for a small group within her office, but was quickly forwarded
outside the building and within hours was being read by millions of internet users as far
away as New Zealand and Australia.
• Her employers did not agree that it was a laughing matter and she was warned that she
would be subject to a disciplinary hearing which could lead to her dismissal.
• A source at the firm said: "She realised that her credibility both internally and externally
had been damaged and so took the decision to hand in her resignation immediately."
• Deloitte say the matter is not necessarily at an end as the company is keen to establish
who was responsible for forwarding the message outside of the company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6788853/Analyst-quits-over-embarrassing-email.html

15. Recommendations

16. Key recommendation = ‘Only Friends’
• My recommendation is
that you review your
privacy settings and
ensure that they are set
to
‘Only Friends’
This is the most effective
privacy setting

17. Prevent Search Engine indexing
1. Go to the Settings tab at top – right
Alter your privacy settings to hide your
corner of profile page
Facebook profile from indexing on search
engines e.g. Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. 2. Select “Privacy Settings” from the
dropdown
3. Select “Search” from the list of security
options
4. Click on “Change Settings”, a popup will
prompt asking for your Facebook
password
5. Enter you password and then uncheck
the box “Allow Indexing” under Public
Search Results

18. More recommendations
Think carefully about who you allow to become your friend
• Once you have accepted someone as your friend they will be
able to access any information about you (including
photographs) that you have marked as viewable by your
friends.
• You can remove friends at any time should you change your
mind about someone.
Show "limited friends" a cut-down version of your profile
• You can choose to make people 'limited friends' who only
have access to a cut-down version of your profile if you wish.
• This can be useful if you have associates/boss who you do not
wish to give full friend status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing
personal information with.

19. Even more recommendations
Exercise caution when posting and tagging photos
• Do not post and tag photos of others unless you
know they would be happy for friends to see the
photo as they will have no control over whether it
remains on the site or not.
Note: sexted pics sent to your partner will be judged
differently by your boss, colleagues etc.!

20. Facebook apps
3rd party data collection= privacy
threat

21. Apps = Privacy threat
• Apps can provide hours of fun, but
they allow third parties to collect
data about you. You have no way of
knowing who creates these apps, so
can you trust them?
• Apps on your Facebook are given
access not just to all of your
information (much of which is
unnecessary for the application to
perform its functions) but also to a
lot of information about your friends,
many of whom will not have
consented to have their information
shared with random third-party
applications.
• Equally your data will be collected by
apps on friends Facebook pages.
Limit the number of apps you download

22. Apps = default setting is ‘share’
• There's is a page in
the Facebook
settings (privacy)
that allows users to
disable your friends'
applications from
accessing this
information about
you.
Note: the default
setting is share
information.

23. Protect yourself from 3rd party apps
1) Go to settings
2) Click on privacy settings
3) Click on applications
and websites

24. Restrict what friends can share
through apps
Click on second option i.e.
What your friends can
share about you

25. Uncheck to protect privacy
Uncheck each item on the
list and save these new
privacy settings
AND
...ask your friends to do
the same

26. Finally
• Have a life, and keep your friends updated via
Facebook - but ensure you don’t compromise
your privacy while doing so!

27. Thanks
Thanks to the Cyberlaw Students and Staff at
Salford Law School who commented on earlier
versions of this presentation.
If you have any queries, please email me at:
k.mccullagh@salford.ac.uk